Be My Baby

The
swinging ‘60s were the days of freedom and choice but there were victims – some
of whom were, dare we say it, unmarried mothers!

Lucky
ones who ‘got into trouble’ were marched down the aisle with the groom shaking
in his boots ahead of the figurative shotgun.

Others
were packed off to relatives or special homes to give birth before their babies
were whisked off to a childless couple who would be able to ‘give them a better
life’.

Thirteen
-year- old Anna McKenna is outstandingly mature as Mary, the nineteen-year-old
TSB clerk with a grammar school education, who has found herself pregnant.There is no question that Mary will not obey
her mother (Pauline Barry) as she takes her off to St Saviour’s Mother and Baby
Home.

Thrust
into the same predicament as three other girls they all become friends.Queenie (Emerald Hickey), Dolores (Erin
Bretherton) and Norma (Alexandra Appleton) do a great job of bringing their
characters to life as they chat in the laundry relieving the monotony by
singing along to records on the radio.Although pregnant none of them is worldly – they don’t even know how
babies are born.

Pamela
Foy is perfect as the Matron who has to uphold her position of keeping the
girls in order and persuading them to give up their babies for adoption.But we get the feeling that, underneath it
all, she is really sympathetic to their plight.

Leo
Appleton’s direction is excellent as it flits through the four-scene set of
this fine production – well-acted and cleverly staged – with nostalgic music
from The Ronettes.

Feeling
very emotional we leave the theatre wondering about all the other girls who
have been in similar predicaments – young girls dreaming of love but left only
with shattered dreams, violated bodies and an emptiness that will never leave
them.